Bitcoin Forum

So I imagine we'll all agree that there's a lot of new people getting in to Bitcoin over the last few months. We see new people posting threads daily here. I feel the price of Bitcoin (even though purchases can be made to increments of 1 bitcoin) may make people feel priced out of it for use as a worthy investment. Litecoin, on the other hand, is still trading a a price that is affordable by most.

Do you think Bitcoin will suffer from price competition from Litecoin? Assuming new purchases are mostly conducted in the spirit of investment rather than currency, when would this momentum have an impact on Bitcoin?

It won't impact Bitcoin at all. People that have the feeling of not being able to afford a whole BTC unit, are insignificant to the market even in large numbers. Point is that people should understand that Bitcoin is highly devisible by nature, and also that you can shift away from the BTC unit to the mBTC unit. 1BTC is nothing more than a GUI unit measure that equals 100,000,000 satoshis. In that regard, it would make more sense for people to set mBTC as their main unit configuration. Instead of 1BTC, you'll have 1000mBTC sitting in your wallet. Instead of buying 1 unit of BTC that costs you +$2800 right now, you'll buy 1 unit of mBTC that costs you just $2.8 at current levels. Only negative aspect that I see here, is that the fees got significantly out of control. It would mean that in order to transfer 1mBTC, you'll be including 1mBTC just in fees. That's why I can't wait for the implementation of Lightning Network - miners need to get kicked off their influental seat.

I will rather see the newcomers go for something like ETH aka Ethereum as it is backed up by big companies such as microsoft - for people blockchain and its use is not that big of a deal if they see the price moves and tend to fell that it can be another bitcoin if we talk about the price. Litcoin might get some traction specially since it is on coinbase so people tend to feel that it is safe, but on the other hand I don't seethat the price of litecoin moves up until they don't get some good news out there.

But again I might be wrong as these are pure speculations.



But still for new people (that don't know the fixed cap of coins) they want to own full bitcoin as it is on psychological side. Even if  Lightning Network gets activated we won't see the improvments right away as light/hardware/online wallets etc. need to implement the  Lightning Network feature in them so that we would be able to use it even if we don't have core installed.

Nah, 1 Litecoin is really expensive at $30.  They should just buy DOGE, it costs ten thousand times less.

My point of course is:

1.  The current supply of Litecoin is about three times that of Bitcoin and will eventually be four times that of Bitcoin, so a reasonable comparison would be calling the price about $90-100 instead.
2.  Both are extremely divisible and the gap is only psychological.  The market regards Bitcoin to be more valuable so it is - a lower price does not have to mean it's "earlier on" than Bitcoin, it just means there's a lower price.

Actually, I think they should buy Paccoin (https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/paccoin/#charts), since the price is only 1.5e-07  ;)

I don't think it should matter that a single btc is expensive. BTC can be broken up into small fractions so it's not like it matters how much one costs. You can invest $10 in btc or $100,000, there's no advantage to using whole numbers over fractions.

But the fees will stay the same and the price continues to rise causing an issue for sending lower denominations

just being affordable by your definition does not warrant an investment. it also has to be good. I am not saying Litecoin is not but just pointing out the flaw in your logic.

a kilo of Gold is not affordable for most people to buy but you still see them invest in Gold so much easier than investing in anything else, like bitcoin. because they trust that is a good investment that will give them profit and keep their money safe at the very least.
the same is true with bitcoin and altcoins in general. they all know about bitcoin but never heard of altcoins. we who are in this community know about them and invest in them for the higher volatility and short term profits.

Some people do buy this way so it's a factor but not as huge as you think. But LTC I do have a god feeling and have invested a bit in it. Lets see how it does.

I don't think that would be a big issure on btc. And it is the counterpart of it. Most altcoins are affected with the price of btc. So even if there price is still there at least a profit on them because there converstion on btc has increased a bit for at least. So you can invest in altcoins and wait for the btc price then you can convert it to btc. Mostly people do this but still the price is so low so not all even cares to do that and probably maintain a trading with that strategy.

This is where you go misinterpreting how the whole system working. Please remember even prices at $3000 per one bitcoin, you can go for buying some satoshi for $10, for example. I am not ready to agree that purchases should be done in the increment of one whole bitcoins.

The era of targeting to have 1000/100/50/21 bitcoins were gone for ever. We are now moving toward one bitcoin for one million dollars range. So, owning just one bitcoin may get you millionaire status.

I do not think a wise investor will go for litecoins as it is still available in the increments of whole litecoins.

I heard a podcast a few weeks back when they played a recording of a lady explaining why she got Litecoin and not Bitcoin she said I didn't have $1800 but had $15 for Litecoin something like that!

That is a mental block with people. When everything starts getting quoted in mBTC and microBTC, then people will probably start investing.
Companies deal with this sort of situation by doing a stock split.

Litecoin is scrypt and less secure than Bitcoin, also LTC dev is still around unlike Satoshi, LTC is literally out there for grab so I wonder why people aren't showing any interest towards it? maybe it's because they are busy manipulating Bitcoin and ETH and slowly accumulating all 3 coins and specially BTC and LTC?

unit bias is very definitely a thing, i don't care what anyone else says. having said that litecoin seems to be largely invisible to the fomo crowd at the moment which is pretty weird considering it's on coinbase now. i guess they need to invent some ico shit to really get going.

Nope. There is no way for that to happen in the current scenario. Bitcoin is the boss and will be considering its acceptance and credibility as of now. Any crypto coin is hard to take over bitcoin unless there is forced restriction from perhaps majority of governments all across the globe at the same time.

Bitcoin always will be into affordable levels if we are not considering buying one full bitcoins. Even new investors will not understand this, by reward-risk ratio, they will come to know about real facts over time.

Perhaps people who are new to Bitcoin think they need to own a whole coin not parts of it, some people will see a cheaper option in coins like Litecoin because they look at the dollar value to own one coin and think that is more affordable than a part of a Bitcoin. That said it does not have to be Litecoin it could well be another lower price cryptocurrency.

the only time litecoin will ever truly take off is when they start offering bullshit icos on their platform. until then it's gonna remain the quiet man.

That is not going to have an affect on bitcoin, litecoin right now can offer greater speed of confirmation, but its price it is not going to attract more investors, investors try to go for the highest priced investment vehicles, and who has that place? You know it, it is bitcoin, bitcoin will keep getting more investment by just being the most expensive crypto out there.

I wouldn't say suffering but Bitcoin already has been sustaining and fending off well competition from alts. Already lost a lot of ground in terms of market share. What's actually astounding is how it's still number one. Just can't keep a good coin down, really.

Litecoin is interesting right now. It has activated Segwit and its creator Charlie Lee who has worked at Coinbase for years has quit to concentrate on Litecoin.  I see lightning network and RSK being implemented in the near future. They don't have the political bullshit that bitcoin has right now and are free to innovate. Bitcoin is like a digital gold, its a store of value. Still cheaper to send cross boarders than gold. Litecoin right now has the advantage of a low cost medium of exchange. I would say it makes a great digital currency but I don't think it will ever takeover market cap in the crypto space.

litecoin doesn't make sense as a threat for bitcoin, litecoin has been here from many years and never was a threat, the real threat is ETH, which is the only one that in the future can do well against bitcoin

Well, the best thing about litecoin is that it does not need to take over bitcoin in market cap, if it did it will become like bitcoin with all the political issues and that stuff, litecoin just needs to be there and keep being useful and that will be enough for litecoin not only to survive but to thrive in the ruthless market competition of crypto currencies.